D. F. Marsh

“Extinction” unfolds a major twist two thirds into the film. Many reviewers have praised the film because of it. I’m not one. Unlike great twists in films such as “The Sixth Sense” which once spilled made you think back and it still made perfect sense, in “Extinction” even with suspension of belief on full throttle, the story completely falls apart after the big reveal. SPOILERS following. So only read on if you want to know why. Extinction begins with a family man who dreams of an alien invasion. The invasion then happens for real, almost the same as in his dreams. The invaders who breathe a bit like Darth Vader in monster-type space suits, blow up the city’s buildings and shoot everything that moves. Then the twist happens. The invaders turn out to be humans originally from Earth, and the humans who are being shot at, including the family dude who’s dreamt about the invasion, turn out to be synthetic AI humans, built by the fathers of the invaders. Supposedly, five decades back, AI’s were maligned. Then they revolted. After a bloodbath, the entire human race fled to Mars, leaving the AI humans to run Earth. Here comes illogicality number one: In the present, the AI humans, conquerers of the human race, do nothing but run, hide, get slaughtered one after the next. I ask myself why? What happened after Man fled to Mars, did their numbers dwindle like crazy so now they’re unable to fight back? Did their tech have a meltdown? Wait a minute, they are the tech. But here on screen, they just run for their AI lives and scream and cry. They don’t reveal any AI smarts. They don’t have any amazing AI weaponry. We learn that some of the AI bigwigs have been expecting the human invasion, and they have been building shelters to hide in. Huh? Are these the same victors over the human race? Here’s another illogical flaw: One of the human invaders named Miles explains that they didn’t know if they’d be able to breathe in Earth’s atmosphere. I guess there’s no Radio shack store on Mars to get an AQ meter or any readily available oxygen diagnostic tool. Of course if they knew they could breathe, they wouldn’t be wearing the scary spacesuits. For me, even worse than the illogicalities and flaws was the missed opportunities, such as why did humans create warm blooded facsimiles? Easy labor, lonely people, replacement from death, sexual perversity. Or maybe the AI’s crafted themselves in the likeness of humans after Man’s exodus. We don’t know because it wasn’t in the script. If time had been spent on the evolution of the AI human instead of building a story around scary aliens and frightened humans leading to an illogical twist, there might have been something really good here. As is, very juvenile, not thought out at all.

I thought really good. I've seen a bunch of negative reviews, which I think I paint a false view. Yes there are a couple of scenes that don't seem necessary. But that always happens in series TV. Bottom line: the acting was excellent. Script was intelligent, and not forced. The subplots connect with the spine. The mystery keeps building. And in the end, the pieces all fit together. Even though the last episode might not jive with everyone's taste, it makes sense.